1. Technical Field
The present invention concerns a support for offshore foundation structures, in particular for tripods, having a bearing surface for receiving gravitational force, a base surface for applying gravitational force to the ground, and a supporting structure for the transfer of force from the bearing surface to the base surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
The storage of offshore foundation structures is assuming an increasingly greater significance by virtue of the expanding market segment in storage areas near the coast or on port and dockyard sites. The foundation structures of contemporary offshore wind power installations are of considerable dimensions, they are generally over 50 meters in height and—in the case of tripods—generally involve an inherent weight of several hundreds of tons. To be able to satisfy the rising demand for foundation structures for offshore wind power installations such foundation structures are produced with increasing capacity in the manufacturing installations. To be able to bridge over the time between production of the foundation structures and installation thereof at the erection location, storage of the foundation structures on the site of the manufacturer and/or at one or more further storage locations, for example on a dockyard or port site, is necessary. Because of the extremely high gravitational forces which the foundation structures exert on the ground therebeneath storage by means of suitable supports is of substantial importance. Supports necessarily have to be selected, which on the one hand have adequate structural integrity to be able to carry a gravitational force of several hundreds of tons, while on the other hand they have a sufficiently large base surface to be able to apply the received gravitational forces to the ground in such a way that the latter is not damaged and/or subsides.
Hitherto generally available heavy-load supports have been used for the storage of foundation structures, in particular tripod structures, which are not explicitly adapted for use for the storage of such structures. Such supports are comparatively large because they are designed for an unspecified load situation. In addition, in the storage of foundation structures for offshore wind power installations, in particular tripod structures, there is the problem that the placement location during storage and before loading the structures on to a ship for moving them to an erection location can necessitate re-positioning the structures one or more times to take account of logistical demands in the region of the storage locations, for example in dockyard or port areas. In that respect the known supports are only to be re-positioned with the involvement of a high level of logistical and technical complication and expenditure and also frequently require special preparation of the underlying ground on which they are set down. The use of known supports on soft grounds which are not especially consolidated is not readily possible.